Halkia fends off questions

Greek Fani Halkia's first couple of hours as an Olympic champion were spent largely fending off questions about how she could possibly have run the 400 metres hurdles faster this year than she raced the same distance on the flat in 2003.

Rather than by any foul means, Halkia has hailed her coach's techniques as the secret to her Games success.

She said: "In order to have great success, you must have someone do a good job laying the groundwork. In this particular case, that person is Giorgos Panagiotopoulos. He helped me tremendously and all this is his own doing."

"The only thing I could do was bow to his coaching brilliance after the race. I wanted to show the world that Giorgos Panagiotopoulos had the leading role in the race."

Filed by Mark O'Neill-Cummins